But while some contemplate the safety issues of the future, others have more pressing issues to deal with such as how to improve the public perception of WAP.
In Europe a backlash has de
But while some contemplate the safety issues of the future, others have more pressing issues to deal with such as how to improve the public perception of WAP.
In Europe a backlash has developed over what British Telecom Chief Technologist Peter Cochrane describes as the most over hyped, under performing technology ever. While there are now close 100,000 registered WAP developers and more than 40 per cent of mobile phones sold in the third quarter of this year were Internet-enabled, consumers are not happy with their WAP experience.
Gartner Groups Dataquest service says while WAP has built strong momentum within the industry, it must develop similar momentum with customers or it will face pressure from competing solutions within six months.
The early WAP days disappointed many users. The expectations have not been met. If improvements take too long, operators will consider alternative solutions. The i-mode solution, currently limited to Japan, may break into other markets and could challenge WAP, says Dataquest General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) should improve connection times to the levels which have proven attractive to Japanese and Korean subscribers, but operators will still need to ensure coverage and build a handset supported user base, which could take time. Cochrane agrees that GPRS could be the saviour of WAP.
Meanwhile the number of services continues to increase. Lycos has announced it will integrate Pinpoints new Wireless Directory Engine into its WAP portal, Lycos Anywhere. Users of WAP phones, Internet-enabled personal digital assistants and a large number of hand-held devices will have access to selected WAP sites delivering news, finance, shopping, entertainment, sports, travel and other content using the new directory. Pinpoints Wireless Directory Engine provides an easy-to-use menu-driven system to locate pages and applications in a way that cuts the number of commands to a minimum.
Closer to home Excite@Home has launched its WAP portal. Subscribers will be able to personalise the portal to provide a range of services including news, horoscopes, weather, finance, personalised reminders, currency rates, sports results and time zones.